Kamiya explains Bayonetta 3’s Switch exclusivity

Platinum Games Vice President Hideki Kamiya has issued a lengthy statement on Twitter shedding light on the forthcoming Bayonetta 3’s status as a Nintendo Switch exclusive.

In a lengthy missive split into 15 parts on Kamiya’s Twitter account, the legendary Japanese developer begins by explaining the development history of Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2: “For Bayonetta 1, we signed a contract with Sega and received funds from them, then we proposed a design for the game and entered production. All of the rights belong to Sega. At the time, our company had only just been established, and we weren’t properly equipped for multiplatform development, so after discussing with Sega, we decided to develop the game exclusively for Xbox 360.

“However, after that, one of Sega’s trading partners ended up making a port for PS3, at Sega’s behest. More recently, they also decided that a Steam version should be developed, which was released last year. Sega owns the rights to all of these versions. When we started making Bayonetta 2, we initially received funds from Sega to develop the game for multiple platforms, but the project was halted due to circumstances at Sega. Nintendo then stepped in to continue funding the game, allowing us to finish it. As such, the rights belong to Sega and Nintendo. The rights owners decided the game should be made for Wii U.

“As for Bayonetta 3, it was decided from the start that the game was going to be developed using Nintendo’s funding. Without their help, we would not have been able to kick off this project.

All of the rights still belong to Sega and Nintendo. The rights owners decided that the game should be made for Switch.”

Kamiya also touches on the day-to-day reality of games development in the statement, saying: “We are a developer that creates games by signing contracts with publishers and receiving funds from them in order to cover development costs. Game development is a business. Each company has its own circumstances and strategies. Sometimes this means games get made, sometimes it means they get cancelled.” A subject he has experience of, after Microsoft cancelled development of Platinum Games’ Scalebound, a mooted Xbox One exclusive.

But at least he was able to confirm that Platinum Games is now full steam ahead as far as making Bayonetta 3 is concerned: “I cannot express how happy I am that we get to make Bayonetta 3, and we intend to do everything within our power to make it as good as it can be. That’s all we can do, and we consider it our greatest mission. It took a while for production of Bayonetta 3 to be okayed, but now that it has kicked off, I hope it will turn into a wonderful encounter for all of you.”

As yet, Bayonetta 3 has not been given a release date – we don’t even know whether it will be ready to ship in 2018. But hopefully, we should get our first proper glimpse of it at this year’s E3 Show in Los Angeles in June. And we’ll bring you all the Bayonetta 3 news as it breaks.

In the meantime, you will soon be able to reacquaint yourself with the joys of the franchise on Nintendo’s Switch: Switch versions of Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2 will go on sale on February 16.

Steve Boxer has been writing about videogames since the early 1990s. His first console was an Atari VCS, and he misspent most of his youth in the 1980s in the arcades. As well as for Green Man Gaming, he can be found writing for The Guardian, Empire, TechRadar and Pocket-Lint. He’s currently having trouble deciding whether his favourite console is his Xbox One X or his Switch, and plays a wide range of games, but especially RPGs (he loves a good JRPG) action-adventure titles, shooters of all descriptions and driving games. Follow him here.